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Archive 2010 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?

  
 
amorfoto
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


Basically I'm currently using this set up for quick effective lighting:

Mola Demi / 430 ex ii / PW TT5 / all attached with a kacey enterprises MOLA speedlight bracket.

So I need more power and these are the monolights I'm currently looking at:

"New" Elinchrom Dlite it 4 :http://www.elinchrom.com/products.php?p_id=200#content
Alienbee b800
Profoto Compact 600/300

"I have read I can use any of these on a Vagabond II power back which I will add later."


Things I like about each mono:

Elinchrom: new robust shell, 10th f stop, modifiers, recycle tone
Alienbee: proven product, customer service, cheap modifiers
Profoto: quality of light, modifiers

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.



Mar 04, 2010 at 12:12 AM
Gregg Heckler
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


You can add quality of light, modifiers, and exposure accuracy to the Elinchrom also. But if you are considering paying Profoto prices you should look at an Elinchrom RX-300 or 600. Now you get better build, 6 f/stops, and built in EL-Skyport, and it will work with a Vagabond II.


Mar 04, 2010 at 12:32 AM
amorfoto
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


Thanks for the reply Gregg,

That's why I have looked at this D-Lite it 4; they completely redesigned it with a more robust shell, built in skyport, ect... I've never really been interested in the d-lite line until this one.



Mar 04, 2010 at 12:43 AM
Mark Booth
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


The D-Lite 4s (not the "it" version) work fine with the Vagabond II. But, so far, I'm not aware of anyone yet testing the new D-Lite it 4 models with the Vagabond II. The BXRis don't work with the Vagabond II so I guess it is quite possible the new D-Lite it 4s won't work with the Vagabond II. Time will tell.

Mark



Mar 04, 2010 at 03:21 AM
evertdoorn
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


Don't know about vagabond; but I've recently sold my innovatronix explorer XT to a guy using the new d-lites; we tested them and they worked fine. Maybe that might be a nice alternative?


Mar 04, 2010 at 07:46 AM
amorfoto
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


Thanks for the advice everyone. I have also looked at the innovatronix, what was your experience with the unit? Sorry for all the questions just want to buy into a line I would like to stay with for a while.


Mar 04, 2010 at 10:25 AM
evertdoorn
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


unit's working just fine; full battery will last a long time. Sold it only because I have a ranger unit now


Mar 04, 2010 at 11:12 AM
CGP4
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


If you're using a Mola dish, I think the bare-bulb flash head style of the Profoto Compact (but not the newer D1) would be superior to the Elinchrom and AB options in that application.


Mar 04, 2010 at 11:50 AM
Carmen Miranda
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


CGP4 wrote:
If you're using a Mola dish, I think the bare-bulb flash head style of the Profoto Compact (but not the newer D1) would be superior to the Elinchrom and AB options in that application.


In what way? The D-Lite and AB are bare bulb too.

FWIW, the AB and D-Lite's are extremely small, light and compact. I've carried the older D-Lites as back up beaters for awhile now and found them to be remarkably robust. The AB's are pretty bullet proof too. But the new improved feature set of the D-Lites seems to have pushed them right to the front of the class in compact, durable and affordable monolights. Wish the modeling light was a bit stronger,but with the new fan they should be able to handle a 150W halogen easy enough.

From what I can tell, the new D-Lites seem to be the closest thing right now to a "studio flash in speedlight clothing".

Good luck.



Mar 04, 2010 at 12:29 PM
CGP4
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


Carmen Miranda wrote:
In what way? The D-Lite and AB are bare bulb too.


They'll all work, but there's bare bulb and there's bare bulb. The Profoto Compact is like the Pro & Acute heads, in that the tube has a diffusion dome and extends forward a good deal from the body. I find this design spreads light better into the sides of dishes and softboxes (I can measure the difference in my softboxes, haven't tried in a dish). The best, true bare bulb flash heads actually have a hairpin/helical tube that protrudes forward, rather than the flat donut tubes you see in most monolights. While, yes, AB and Elinchrom are bare in the sense that the tubes are exposed, their design (and effectiveness) is different; in fact, I find Elinchrom's integrated reflector behind the tube makes it especially forward biased (but I understand, to mitigate this, Mola has a new mounting bracket to help get Elinchrom tubes farther into the dish).

My answer was for use in a beauty dish; as far as monolights go, in general, I'd take Elinchrom over Profoto anyday!

Edited on Mar 05, 2010 at 11:11 AM · View previous versions



Mar 04, 2010 at 12:42 PM
andreavaccaro
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


I bought an Elinchrom d-lite4 about a month ago and I really like it!
It's not the latest model: it's the one with the cooling fan, but without the skyport. I can live with that for now, later on I will add another (new) d-lite and trigger the old one via optical trigger.

For modifiers I bought a 60° reflector with grids, plus a 95cm octabox from this ebay seller:
link

You should consider them, the octabox is really cheap ($50), even if it is a little pain to assemble... but I can't really compare since it's the first one I've ever assembled.
But the light that comes out is nice, even and soft... and that what it counts for me.



Mar 04, 2010 at 01:00 PM
ehor
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


What about the Ranger Quadra?


Mar 04, 2010 at 11:55 PM
photoCycle
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


Mark Booth wrote:
The D-Lite 4s (not the "it" version) work fine with the Vagabond II. But, so far, I'm not aware of anyone yet testing the new D-Lite it 4 models with the Vagabond II. The BXRis don't work with the Vagabond II so I guess it is quite possible the new D-Lite it 4s won't work with the Vagabond II. Time will tell.

Mark



Who said the BXRi's dont work I have been using mine flawlessly with the Vagabond II?



Mar 05, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Mark Booth
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


photoCycle, I had read somewhere that folks were having trouble with the BXRis and the Vagabond II. But, now that I think about it, early on I read reports of folks having trouble with the D-Lites and the Vagabond II and mine have also performed flawlessly (two D-Lites up to full power, or three D-Lites up to about a stop less than full power). So, my bad! It is good to know you aren't having any issues with your BXRis!

Though, I would be interested to know if that 2 or more BXRis and if the Vagabond II can handle full power if you're using more than 2.

And, with your comments in mind, then I suspect the new D-Lites it models will probably work fine with the Vagabond II.

Mark



Mar 05, 2010 at 12:41 PM
Paul Buff
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


CGP4 wrote:
They'll all work, but there's bare bulb and there's bare bulb. The Profoto Compact is like the Pro & Acute heads, in that the tube has a diffusion dome and extends forward a good deal from the body. I find this design spreads light better into the sides of dishes and softboxes (I can measure the difference in my softboxes, haven't tried in a dish). The best, true bare bulb flash heads actually have a hairpin/helical tube that protrudes forward, rather than the flat donut tubes you see in most monolights. While, yes, AB and Elinchrom are bare in the
...Show more

AB/WL/Zeus?Einstein are about the only monolights that have no sub reflector, thus don't forward bias the light output. The have flat back plates and the tube is 1" forward of the backplate, yielding about 220° non focused bare bulb output. This is important with softboxes, PLMs and such.The Einstein dome does amazing things in this regard - providing really good diffusion and integration of the model lamp and flash - particularly effective on high output reflectors to provide smooth patterns free of hot spots, etc.

As for various lights with Vagabond or Tronix, it's a matter of how many lights you attempt to use and at what voltage they crash.



Mar 05, 2010 at 02:10 PM
Kacey
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


Paul Buff wrote:
AB/WL/Zeus?Einstein are about the only monolights that have no sub reflector, thus don't forward bias the light output. The have flat back plates and the tube is 1" forward of the backplate, yielding about 220° non focused bare bulb output. This is important with softboxes, PLMs and such.


Paul here is a image of a AB 1600 and a stock AB Softbox ring.
Essentially isn't every one of your insert's a deep sub reflector?




Mar 05, 2010 at 11:07 PM
Keith Brown
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


Have any of the current D-Lite4 owners had an issue with the long flash duration? I am interested in the D-Lite4 IT, but I thought the duration was fairly long on my B800's, the Elinchrom is even worse.

How noticeable is this in practice? Any shots of them freezing action would be much appreciated.



Apr 04, 2010 at 10:45 AM
Paul Buff
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


Kacey wrote:
Paul here is a image of a AB 1600 and a stock AB Softbox ring.
Essentially isn't every one of your insert's a deep sub reflector?
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/482031994_xU4WJ-L.jpg

The softboxes have a sub reflector designed to project the light properly for the softbox. The lights themselves have a flat face for optimal bare bulb use and for the PLM and upcoming accessories that are optimized for 180° non-pre focused light source.



Apr 04, 2010 at 01:05 PM
Paul Buff
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


Keith Brown wrote:
Have any of the current D-Lite4 owners had an issue with the long flash duration? I am interested in the D-Lite4 IT, but I thought the duration was fairly long on my B800's, the Elinchrom is even worse.

How noticeable is this in practice? Any shots of them freezing action would be much appreciated.

RX600/300 have flash durations comparable to AB/W. The D Lite have much longer durations. The BX series duration is between D Light and RX series. It's all on B&H (only t.5 stated).



Apr 04, 2010 at 01:07 PM
Kacey
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · "New" Elinchrom D-Lite it 4 // B800 or Profoto Compact?


Seems you may have contradicted yourself
AB/WL/Zeus?Einstein are about the only monolights that have no sub reflector, thus don't forward bias the light output. The have flat back plates and the tube is 1" forward of the backplate, yielding about 220° non focused bare bulb output. This is important with softboxes

I think getting the flash tube into the modifier is very important. Isn't this one of the reasons for the new design of the dome on the Einstein? Every softbox I have tested performs better with the tube forward getting full bounce in the modifier. I love most of your products, but not this Balcar recessed sub-reflector design. Looking forward to the Diffusion Dome. I have tested rigging a pyrex dome on the AB flash tube and it improves this forward bias issue too. There is not a product on the market that can not use some improvement.... I can't wait to play with your new flash when it's available.



Apr 04, 2010 at 02:03 PM
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